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January 13, 2010 – Today, Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson welcomed an announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that two Nebraska businesses will receive a total of more than $22.6 million in loan guarantees. The guarantees are made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“These stimulus funds will help two rural Nebraska businesses to grow and add good paying jobs in our state,” said Senator Nelson. “In the current economic climate, this funding is great news for these rural Nebraska communities. Small businesses like these form the backbone of our state’s economy.”
“We’d like to thank the USDA and Senator Nelson for their support,” said Terry Landes, Marketing and Public Relations Manager for Prarieland Dairy. “This loan will allow us to hire people and to start a new business in a rural community that desperately needs new jobs.”
Preferred Rocks of Genoa, LLC will receive a $22 million loan to refinance real estate and equipment at its facility in Genoa. From this facility, Preferred Rocks extracts, processes, sells and ships silica sand mainly for gas extraction as well as various industrial uses such as foundry, paint fillers and water filtration. Preferred purchased the facility in late 2007 and immediately made $37 million in improvements and upgrades to the plant. The wet and dry plants are the newest sand processing plants in the United States. The plant runs 24 hours a day and has a current staff of 40. It has plans to increase to a total staff of 80 within the next 2 years. The jobs at the facility pay 45% higher than the county average.
Prairieland Foods, LLC, in Hallam, was selected to receive a $650,000 loan to enable the locally owned and operated dairy processing facility to meet the growing demand for a local, source-verified, sustainable supply of dairy foods and ingredients. The facility will also help diversify the market exposure for milk produced at local dairies, including partner company Prairieland Dairy, LLC. The loan will be used to purchase adjacent property for future expansion to include producing cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and other dairy foods and ingredients.
The funding announced today is being made available through USDA Rural Development’s Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program.
Senator Nelson played a key role in the passage of the $787 billion stimulus bill. He worked with a bipartisan group of nearly 20 Senators to better focus The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on tax cuts for the middle class and job creation for millions of Americans. Senator Nelson led the group through the initial bill line by line, dollar by dollar, to reduce spending and cut out $108 billion of inefficient or less-stimulative spending. The bipartisan group helped the improved bill win congressional approval. President Obama signed it into law February 17, 2009.
Senator Nelson is posting information about the release of stimulus finds on his website as it becomes available. Visit http://bennelson.senate.gov/feature_4.cfm for more information.
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